Ex-Guantanamo inmate Omar Khadr due in Canadian court
Omar Khadr killed a US soldier with a grenade during a gun battle in 2002
A former Guantanamo detainee is expected to make his first public appearance since his capture over a decade ago in an Afghan firefight.
At the hearing in Alberta, Canada, lawyers for Omar Khadr, 27, will challenge his terms of imprisonment.
Khadr was 15 when detained wounded in Afghanistan after a 2002 gun battle during which he killed a US soldier.
He pleaded guilty to a series of war crimes charges three years ago in exchange for an eight-year sentence.
Khadr, a native of Toronto, was transferred to the Canadian prison system last year.
'Heinous crimes'
Monday's hearing in the provincial capital of Edmonton seeks to determine whether Khadr's detention in an adult prison is legal, given he was under 18 years of age when first detained.
Khadr is not expected to address the court.
"I want them to see Omar Khadr," defence lawyer Dennis Edney told Canada's National Post newspaper.
"I don't want him hidden away."
Khadr was last seen in October 2010, though under strictly limited conditions, before a military court in Guantanamo, where he pleaded guilty to war crimes.
He received five concurrent eight-year sentences.
After being transferred to Canada last year, he was first held at the maximum security Millhaven Institution in eastern Ontario, largely in isolation.
He was transferred to another maximum security prison in Edmonton, Alberta, in May.
According to the Toronto Star, he was assaulted at that facility by an inmate who accused him of killing a Canadian soldier.
Mr Edney's case is based on whether Khadr's prison term should be considered a single youth sentence or five separate sentences with one considered a youth term.
The government argues he has been appropriately placed in an adult maximum security facility.
"Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes," Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said in a statement on Sunday.
"The government of Canada will vigorously defend against any attempted court action to see him allowed onto Canadian streets sooner."
If his application is successful, Khadr would serve the rest of his prison sentence in a provincial, not federal prison. He became eligible for parole in July, but has not applied.
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